The Feasts of the Lord – Passover

The Feasts of the Lord – Passover (Exodus 12, Leviticus 23, Exodus 23:14-17)

Purpose of this study: To understand the significance of the yearly feasts that God ordained for the people of Israel (the Church in the Old Testament), and to appreciate how these feasts relate to us (His Church in the New Testament). For them (the Israelites), the feasts were within a year (a physical year). But for us, the year is symbolic of the total span of our Christian life while on this earth. The Lord Jesus in Luke 4:18-19, quoted Isaiah 61:1-3, to announce the beginning of this symbolic year. People begin this symbolic year when they become born-again (when they are freed from the judgment of sin), similar to how the beginning of the year for the people of Israel is the month in which they came out of Egypt (Exodus 23:15). Accordingly, believers successfully arrive at the end of the year, when they obtain the hope of the Christian journey, similar to how God referred to the end of the Israelite year as when they obtained their full harvest (Exodus 23:16).

There are seven feasts in total (as shown in Leviticus 23). They are:

1. The Passover
2. The feast of unleavened bread
3. The feast of firstfruits (the first firstfruits)
4. The feast of harvest (the second firstfruits) also called Pentecost
5. The feast of Trumpets
6. The day of atonement
7. The feast of tabernacles also called the feast of ingathering (at the full harvest)

As shown in Exodus 23:14-17, of these seven feasts, three of them are key milestones that God records. They are times when a person appears before God. It is synonymous to how a person can progress from grade nine of High School to grade ten, to grade eleven, to grade twelve, etc., but the milestone that is particularly celebrated is the final graduation from High School (after grade twelve). Likewise, of the seven feasts, three of them mark particular milestones that God eagerly waits for His people to graduate into after progressing through the in-between feasts. These three feasts (as stated in Exodus 23:14-17) are:

1. The Passover
2. The feast of harvest (also called the Pentecost)
3. The feast of tabernacles (also called Ingathering)

For the people of Israel in the Old Testament: the Passover was a feast to mark Israel’s deliverance from the bondage of Egypt; the feast of harvest (the Pentecost) was a feast to mark Israel getting the firstfruits (the first part) of their harvest; and the feast of ingathering was a feast to mark Israel getting their full harvest. These three milestones (deliverance from bondage in Egypt, getting the firstfruits of the harvest, and getting the full harvest) represent three milestones for the New Testament believer: deliverance from the kingdom of darkness and translation into the kingdom of Christ Jesus (Colossians 1:12-13), getting the earnest (the first part) of our inheritance—getting the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14), and getting the full inheritance—getting God’s divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

In this bible study, using Exodus 12, 1 Corinthians 5:7, and other passages, we will by God’s grace focus on understanding how we as New Testament Jews (Romans 2:28-29) are to keep the feast of Passover.

Read Exodus 11, 12. Numbers 9:2-14, Numbers 3:33, Joshua 5:10-11, Matthew 26:2-19, Luke 22:1-15, Hebrews 11:28

This all-important feast is celebrated by the covenant community of God, only the circumcised can celebrate it Ex 12:49-50, considering the importance of circumcision as the starting point of his relationship with God, it is the token of the covenant. Genesis 17:9-12. Joshua 5:1-11. Deuteronomy 10:16. Jeremiah 4:4. Romans 2:28-29. Colossians 2:11.

To give us a New Testament context as we proceed to discuss how the details of the Passover relate to us, 1 Corinthians 5:7 says: “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new limp, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrifice for us:”. So Christ Jesus is our Passover Lamb.

Details of the Passover Feast:

• Exodus 11:1-2. Passover is a plague, the last plague it’s target was to destroy the first born Gen 49:3 defines the meaning of firstborn, it is the plague sent by God to destroy the might, the beginning of the strength of Egypt. Egypt a type of the world, and pharaoh and is cohorts a type of the devil and all his demonic hordes, Passover is an arrangement by God to destroy them so that they will no longer have what it takes to hold Gods children captive. A thorough appreciation of the Passover free a believer from any and all satanic harassment.
• Exodus 11:2-3. Exodus 12:35. Passover is a feast that cause Gods covenant communityto get back their honour, glory and possessing of their possessions. Gold, silver and precious things required to build the temple of the Lord (Exodus 25: 1-8) is gotten through the celebration of Passover. Gods people can not be cheated in life, he will arise to avenge his people, all their servitude labour building Ramses must be paid for fully in arrears. It is the feast where we spoil our adversary. The resources required to build the temple was acquired during the Passover. Take note: the command is personally communicated into the ears. The word borrow is not with the idea that they will pay back.
• Exodus 11:7. Passover is the feast that place a mark of distinction on the holy community of God, a permanent severance from the world and its lust, it guarantees our safe keep that though we are in this world, but this world is not in us, and we carry gospel immunity against the wickedness that is in the world.
• Exodus 12:2. The month in which God established the Passover feast for the people of Israel became their first month. In Egypt, there was already a Calendar that the people of Israel had lived by for hundreds of years. But the Passover experience put an end to all that and gave them a new beginning. The month of the Passover became their first month. It therefore means that the New Testament fulfillment of this Passover feast represents a new beginning for anyone who takes part in it—an end to his or her past. This is confirmed in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (keeping in mind that Christ is our Passover Lamb).
• Exodus 12:3-4. Each house is to take a lamb for itself. And more particularly, the rationing of the lamb is to be according to the eating capacity of each person in the house. How does this relate to us? Jesus is our Passover Lamb. We are to eat of Him to our capacity. That is, we are to eat of Him till we are full—till all lapses (all limitations) in our lives are dealt with. Matthew 26:17-26. John 6:27-58. How do we eat of Him? To eat means to take something in so that its nutrients become part of you. We eat of the Lord Jesus (our Passover Lamb) by believing on Him and every Word He has spoken in relation to any aspect of life. Thus, part of keeping the feast of Passover (for the New Testament believer) involves believing the Word of God. It is by believing the Gospel that a person begins to keep the Passover, and it by continuing to believe the further revealed details of the Gospel that a person experiences the full power of the Passover and advances into a more fruitful Christian life (making a clean break from the bondage of sin (Egypt)). As such, since we are told that each person is to take in the Lamb according to His eating, it means that we have a responsibility to seek out the Word of God in relation to any areas of lapses (of hunger, of limitation) in our lives and chew on it (through meditation) and believe it. Such is how a person ought to be thoroughly saved, and where they have no capacity of themselves to seek out the Word of God, it is to be thoroughly preached to them.
• Exodus 12:5-6. The Lord Jesus our Passover Lamb fulfilled this requirement of being without blemish. Thus, we have confidence that all the deliverances that the Passover is to accomplish is ours as we key in by faith.
• Exodus 12:7,13,23. The person keeping the Passover is to take the blood of the Lamb and apply it on the entrance (the door) on his house—upon the two side posts and upon the upper door post. What is the house? Job 4:19 lets us know that our body is a house. The houses of clay refer to our natural body which is made from the clay (the dust) of the earth. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5:1 also echoes this—that our body is a house (a tabernacle). And for believers, 1 Corinthians 6:19 says the body it is not just a house but becomes a temple of the Holy Ghost. How then do we apply the blood upon the door of our house? What is the door? Generally, we know that the door is the entrance into a house. It is by going through the door that someone can affect the person inside the house. So what is the entrance by which something can come from outside to affect our inner man? For physical things, the answer would be: our eyes, our ears, our five senses (the means by which we take in information). For spiritual things, the answer would be: our mind. A spirit can speak words into our mind, or can project images into our mind. So then applying the blood upon the entrance of our house means to apply the blood (by faith) on our body (with particular attention to our five senses), it also means to apply the blood on our mind. Why is this necessary? Exodus 12:23 says the blood is to be a token (a distinguishing sign) so that the destroyer would pass over and would not enter into our houses to smite us. What is the destroyer? In the Old Testament it was a spirit that judged by killing physically. But in these days, it is a spirit that judges by releasing people to a reprobate mind (with strong delusion) so that they will indeed face judgment for their choice of willfully rejecting God and having pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12. Romans 1:28. When we therefore apply the blood on ourselves (our five senses and our mind) we are secured from this kind of judgment—a judgment that has already been going on. And being free, we are able to make a clean break from sin into righteousness. We can enforce this truth in our lives anytime we sense corruption wanting to enter into us through our body (the things we see, hear or feel) or through our mind (thoughts or imaginations). We are to apply the blood of Jesus by faith again and again so that such destruction of a reprobate mind will Passover. This is a practically applicable principle we should use daily.
• Exodus 12:8-9. The flesh of the Lamb is to be eaten roast with fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. What does this mean for us? Jesus is our Passover Lamb. And as we have learned, eating His flesh means receiving His Word, meditating on it, believing it, and letting it become part of us by doing it. He is the Word of God. What then does it mean to eat the Word of God roast with fire and not boiled with water. Physically speaking, there is a contrast between how roasting with fire cooks food versus how boiling with water cooks food. In both cases, the heat of fire is required to cook the food. In the case of roasting, just the heat of the fire acts on the meat to make it ready for consumption. While in boiling with water, other things (the water and any ingredients in it) are absorbed into the meat. Water is used to represent words—be it the Word of God (Ephesians 5:26), or the word of the devil (Revelation 12:15). So when God says the Passover Lamb is not to be prepared by boiling in water (and keeping in mind that the Passover Lamb is Jesus whom we eat of by taking in the Word of God, we can understand that God is saying we must not mix other words (other ideologies) with His Word before taking it in. It must be the undiluted, uncompromising Word of God that we take in and believe in. Roasting with fire means to expose the meat to the fire. The fire is light and it is also heat. We are to eat of the Passover Lamb by letting the light of God’s revelation “roast” the scriptures from being the raw letters to being the Word revealed by the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:6 says the letters of the scriptures (when not breathed on by the fire of the Holy Spirit’s illumination) can kill (because of man’s ignorance on the right way to interpret it), but when “roasted” by the fire of the Holy Spirit’s light, it gives life. We therefore, in keeping the Passover, are to eat the Word of God to our eating capacity (till there is no more needy area in our lives). And now we see that to eat the Word of God, we are to have it roasted with the fire of the Holy Spirit’s illumination and not boiled with the water of foreign ideas. This is how a person should take in the Passover Lamb (the Word of God) beginning from when he first hears the gospel, onwards through his Christian life. It should be eaten with bitter herbs. This represents a state of soberness and the effect that the undiluted Word of God should have on a person as it exposes sin, calls for true repentance (and hasty departure from sin), and requires that the sinful deeds of the flesh be put to death (Colossians 3:5, Romans 8:13). Sincerely allowing this bitter experience of the undiluted Word of God to work in one’s life (in the Passover night) makes the person rise into the joy of deliverance in the morning. Psalm 30:5, 17:15. John 16:20-22. The Passover Lamb is to be eaten with unleavened bread. 1 Corinthians 5:8 explains this as sincerity and truth. We must take in the Word of God in all sincerity and with a truthful heart of repentance for the full deliverance that Passover represents to have effect in our lives.
• Exodus 12:10. Exodus 34:25. Numbers 9:12. God said that after roasting the Passover Lamb, and eating to full capacity, nothing is to be left until the morning. It must be fully burnt with fire. Asking them to burn it with fire means that God does not want anyone to eat of the meat that was prepared the night before. It therefore means that He would have His people eat that meat fresh. For us, keeping in mind what we have learnt, we can understand that this means God wants us to always have a fresh revelation of His Word. For the nutrients of Christ our Passover Lamb to be fully in-worked into us (for salvation and deliverance) we must depend always on the present revelation of the Holy Spirit’s illuminating fire. We can’t do anything simply as a dogma or as legalism. What we take in from the Word of God must be a present revelation that each person takes in fresh. Meaning, a person cannot run with the revelation of another person if that revelation is not present (fresh) to him. He must receive light from the Holy Spirit on the matter before He can take it in, else it won’t have the full Passover effect of saving and delivering him. It would just be a rule he follows. Added to this instruction (as stated in Numbers 9:12) God said that the bone of the Passover Lamb should not be broken. Physically speaking, the bone is the structure that upholds the body. It is also where the red blood cells are produced. Leviticus 17:11 tells us that the life of the flesh is the blood. As such, since the blood is produced by the red bone marrow, we know that the bone is the source of life. Therefore, keeping in mind that the Passover Lamb is the Lord Jesus whom we eat of by taking in the Word of God, we can understand that the bone of the Passover Lamb represents the laws or principles in the Word of God that uphold it in life (laws that we must not break). By saying we are not to break the bones it means we are to keep it. Keeping it for us means that we appropriate it in our lives by faith. Romans 8:2 says “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” One of these laws is faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Romans 3:27 states this clearly, calling it a law of faith. Another law is love as said in 1 Corinthians 13. Galatians 5:6 says: “… faith worketh by love.” As such, for example, one cannot break the law of faith and expect to enjoy the full salvation experience of the Passover.
• Exodus 12:11. God said that the Passover should be eaten in haste. The people should have their loins girded and should have shoes on their feet and staff in their hand. Basically, the people should dress up as though they are about to embark on a journey, and being dressed, they should eat the Passover. Why? It is because they were to leave Egypt that night. They were not to sleep back in Egypt. Eating the Passover (and the judgments that God would do over Egypt) marked their exit from Egypt. As such, in summary, God was asking them to have a readiness to leave Egypt. What does this mean for us? It means that in keeping the Passover feast, we are to have a readiness (we are to purpose in our hearts) to let go and leave away everything that speaks of sin. We are not to take sin lightly. Paul in Romans 13:14 says “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.” In keeping the Passover, we are to consciously purpose in our hearts to flee (to depart) from sin. 1 Corinthians 6:18. 1 Corinthians 10:14. 1 Timothy 6:11. 2 Timothy 2:22.
• Exodus 12:12. God said that in the night that the people keep the Passover feast, He will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt and will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. For us, it means that at the time when a person begins to keep the feast of Passover, at that time, God will implement in his life the judgment over the firstborn and the gods of Egypt (a judgment Jesus already secured at the cross). Egypt represents the kingdom of darkness and the hold of sin. What are the firstborn and the gods of Egypt? Genesis 49:3 explains that firstborn represents the might, the chief of strength (the word beginning means chief), the excellency of dignity and power. As such, for us, the firstborn of Egypt represents the might and power of the kingdom of darkness in our lives. This is what the gods of Egypt also represent. The spirits of darkness that work sin and bondage in the lives of people. Ephesians 6:12 calls them principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness of this world (that is, the reasons why this world is in darkness), spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. When we partake of the Passover feast, God moves to judge and put an end to their influence in our lives. This is a truth that through knowledge and faith, we are to enforce in our lives against any spirit of darkness that still deceitfully wants to maintain a claim over us in any way.
• Numbers 9:2-14. 2 Chronicles 30:17-20. Passover is both for the clean and unclean, it is the levelling platform where the unclean becomes clean and acceptable in God’s sight by the blood of the atonement. As stated in Numbers 9:2-14, a person can become unclean because of their link to a dead person. But despite this link to the dead person, the Passover feast when kept according to all God’s instructions can liberate the person from the unclean state. For us today, an example of uncleanness due to link to a dead person is: a person whose parents or family (ancestry) lineage is dead in idolatry or witchcraft, etc. Such link with the family has an unclean effect on the person which the enemy would like to use to lay claim to the person’s life (or any aspect of their life—moral, financial, marital, academic, spiritual, etc.). But despite this precondition, the person can partake of the Passover feast, and when they do, they will be delivered. God also said (in Numbers 9:10) that a person who takes a journey can still keep the Passover (so that he can be healed). Taking a journey represents departing from the faith (sliding into sin, into the ways of the world). So, no matter what we may have done, or how far we feel we may have gone, God has made provision that we can keep the Passover and be healed (be restored to life). 1 John 1:8-10, 2:1. Hebrews 11:28.
• Exodus 12:46. God instructed that the Passover must be eaten inside the house and not taken outside the house. It means that only those who have covenanted themselves to God as His people should take part in the Passover.
• Exodus 12:48. God also instructed that the Passover is to be eaten only by those who are circumcised. As shown in Genesis 17:9-12, circumcision is the sign of a covenant with God. It is only such persons who have covenanted themselves with God that can keep the Passover. And as we have read before in Deuteronomy 10:16. Jeremiah 4:4. Romans 2:28- 29. Colossians 2:11, the circumcision we (in the New Testament) are to do is particularly a circumcision of the heart—to remove all rebellion and sinfulness from our heart.

Additional thoughts for subsequent study:

• The Passover feast always marks a new beginning of God’s move in our lives, bothindividually and corporately. Numbers 33:3. Joshua 5:10-11.
• The Passover feast should only be celebrated in the place where God shall choose. For thechildren of Israel, they couldn’t just keep it in their houses, but had to go to the sanctuary.

Concluding thoughts:

Christ is our Passover Lamb, both Him crucified and Him resurrected. He remains the central figure of the feast. Thus, all focus and attention should be on Him in the keeping of this feast. In 1 Corinthians 1:9, the scripture tells us that God has invited us into the fellowship of His Son which begins with the feast of Passover. It is as we continue to feast with Him (fellowship with Him) that we continue to enjoy the blessings (the gains, the victories) of the Passover.